Giuseppe Richeri, Zhan Zhang（意大利、美国）

Emeritus Professor at University of Lugano, Switzerland University of Lugano (Switzerland)

post-doc researcher at Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California (USC),

The European Acceptance and Resistance Towards the One Belt One Road Initiatives

The One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiatives was introduced by Beijing in 2013 under Xi Jinping’s global ambition to reconnect China with Europe as well as Central and West Asia. With seventeen European countries joining the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and the establishment of the “EU connectivity platform” in 2015, the interdependence between China and Europe (the European Union and EU member states) for regional infrastructure projects, trade liberalization, financial integration, and policy agreements all got deepened.

Junhao Hong（美国）

美国布法罗纽约州立大学传播系教授，博士生导师，哈佛大学费正清中国研究中心研究员

On the one hand, I feel China’s Belt and Road Initiative is a very important strategic one, because it represents and reflects an important part of the real and practical  efforts in establishing a new world economic and political order, which has not been making much progress in the past several decades since that goal was proposed by many Third World developing nations in 1970s. However, in just three years since the start of the Belt and Road Initiative, it has been yielding board and very positive influence in many ways and in many countries, including both developing and developed countries.

On the other hand, despite the fact that some public in the United States are becoming aware of the Belt and Road Initiative, but the majority of them are still not aware of the initiative. Meanwhile, the U.S. mainstream media have had little coverage of China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Naren Chitty & Li Mei（澳大利亚）

Professor Naren Chitty A.M.

Inaugural Director, Soft Power Analysis & Resource Centre (SPARC)Foundation Chair in International Communication Editor-in-Chief, The Journal of International Communication Faculty of Arts 

OBOR & Australia

China’s proposal to include Australia’s northern -development plan in the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, potentially links this region of Australia to 60 plus countries through infrastructure and cross-border trade. An Australia-China Belt and Road Initiative (ACBRI), has been formed “to help Australian businesses gain clarity on Belt and Road Opportunities.” This will be considered as an off-shore (in-relation to China) change agency in a diffusion model。

Buddhi Sharma（非洲）

General Secretary and Chief Researcher, Nepal-China Dialogue and Development Forum (NCDDF)now

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for joint efforts to build the Belt and Road into a road for peace, prosperity, openness, innovation and civilization. Delivering a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the two-day Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, President Xi remarked on that the Silk Road spirit has become a great heritage of human civilization. In his speech, Xi announced to scale up financing support for the Belt and Road Initiative by contributing an additional 100 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) to the Silk Road Fund. The Belt and Road Initiative, put forward by Xi in 2013, aims to boost interconnection and trade between Asia and the rest of the world. Belt and Road Forum for international Cooperation has showed to give distinct trend on international way for peace, stability and development in the world. Due to the overwhelming supports from developing world no doubt on reaching the destination.

Chunsheng Bai（美国）

Professor of Newyork State University

The OBOR Initiative is a bold economic and diplomatic move by the Chinese government. This mega project covers about 65 percent of the global population, one-third of the world GDP and not to mention the enormous amount of commodities and services will be moved on the One Belt, One Road. While some of the western media have been criticizing this initiative as a neo-imperialistic move to expand China’s influence around the world and to generate geo-political clout for Beijing, the Chinese government, however, is taking tremendous risks in trying to revitalize the economy, building infrastructure and promoting trade of this region. The benefits of this initiative are not just for China, but for the rest of the world. It is my firm believe that this initiative is friendly, forward-looking and fruitful for the world.  All nations around the world should chip in and help out to bring the project to reality.

Wali Zahid（亚洲  巴基斯坦）

President, Institute of Media & Communications; CEO, Skill City, award-winning journalist. Pakistan

In this morning's opening speech at BRF what really struck me was that President Xi Jinping clearly knew his place in history. He devoted a large amount of time on China's history and how ancient Silk Road connected China with other civilisations in Asia, Europe and Africa. Xi is now reviving it knowing well that he's the chosen one to lead at this juncture of time.

He's also clear that the nature of BRI partner country relationships have to be of 'partnership', and not 'alliance' any more as the earlier world alignment in unipolar or bipolar world showed. (This was a reference to the way the US led the world in its time.)

Xi emphasised on peace first before he mentioned prosperity. He knew how terrorism and conflicts could endanger the world and sabotage China's efforts to bring masses out of poverty. Xi also knew that China has to clear the mess some of the world regions were in because of vested interests and continuity of terror viciousness.

Munib Ahmed （亚洲）

Assistant Professor Chinese language, National university of modern languages islamabad.

Chinese government’s one belt one road (OBOR) initiative is positively taken by world at large. This OBOR or you can say yi dai yi lu will bring both to the connecting countries. For Pakistan, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which is flagship project under OBOR already initiated by these two countries. It will bring 46 billion USD investment to Pakistan. Under this corridor both nations finalized short term projects and we hope that long term projects would be finalized along the side line of upcoming summit. The CPEC would connect Chinese remote western part to the Pakistani south western part. This corridor starts from Xinjiang to the Pakistani Guwadar port. This port is already handed over to Chinese for operational purposes. Guwadar port is opposite to Persian gulf where World almost 40 % oil shipments takes place. This port would reduce Chinese oil and energy route almost 2/3. Instead of economic perspective, it also has strategic significance for Chinese security which will provide safer route to Chinese energy from gulf region. It also helps China to connect under developed western part as compare to Eastern part through this corridor. For Pakistan, mostly scholars believe that it would be a game changer. Pakistan requires to ensure maximum peace and satiability with reference to security concerns to get much benefits from this corridor. This corridor would definitely improve our basic infrastructure and energy crisis. Other regional countries also shown interest to become part of CPEC and OBOR. Chinese OBOR should be seen as economic corridor not as hegemony or threat to any nation. It would be symbol of regional connectivity for future.